09 April 2010
A little side-track here.
I had 2 pairs of frameless spectacles before in the past which kind of looked dated now and was thinking of getting another frameless pair.
I went to my usual optical shop and started browsing through their range of rimless glasses. Immediately one caught my attention. I liked the unusual rectangular shape and also that the frames are not held by screws and the best part, it is so super, super light cos it's made of beta-titanium.
"This is designed by Kazuo Kawazaki and is the model worn by Sarah Palin", said my optometrist.
The popular 'Sarah Palin' glasses by Japanese designer Kazuo Kawazaki.
Paragraph taken from Telegraph.co.uk :
Palinmania fuels sales of Japanese glasses
Thousands of people are ordering Sarah Palin's signature clear-rimmed spectacles from Japan in the latest sign that Palinmania is gripping the globe.
Kazuo Kawasaki is the Japanese designer behind Mrs Palin's glasses Photo: AP
Kazuo Kawasaki, the Japanese designer behind Mrs Palin's glasses, has thanked the Republican vice-presidential candidate for inadvertently thrusting his creation into the international arena and helping to boost sales.
"I want to say, thank you to Mrs Palin. I want people to realise how fantastic Made in Japan technology can be," said Mr Kawasaki, whose frames have previously been worn by the actress Whoopi Goldberg and former US Secretary of State Colin Powell.
He added: "She is very good looking. She would look good in any glasses."
The world's growing obsession with Senator Barack Obama was eclipsed the moment the bespectacled 44-year-old Alaskan governor emerged on the US political scene as Mr McCain's running mate.
Since then, Mrs Palin has appeared in Vogue, become the subject of a range of commercial products from dolls to thongs and is now behind a major surge in business at a Japanese glasses firm.
Masunaga Optical Manufacturing Co., which makes the politician's non-allergenic MP-704 frames, has been inundated with orders since Mrs Palin's popularity began to soar.
The company, based in central Japan, normally makes around 12,000 MP-704 glasses in an 18-month period, which retail for around $400 (£200) in stores in the US. It will now have to increase production to meet the Palin-inspired demand.
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The spectacle worn by Sarah Palin is gray at the sides but I changed mine to a kind of brown lacquered design also from the Kazuo Kawasaki range.
I had to change my nose-pads to a normal rubber nose-pads as the original ones kept sliding down my nose (nose oily lah).
My pair of Kazuo Kawasaki spectacles.
and the point of this post?
I met the person who owns the company 'Masunaga Optical Manufacturing Co' (click for link. Site is in Japanese but you can have Google translate to English) that makes the Kazuo Kawazaki frames.
We were seated at the same table with him and his family.
How coincident is that? Too bad I wasn't wearing the Sarah Palin spectacles that evening.
That's Mr. Masunaga Yasunori. He came across as a humble person, no airs about him.
where can you buy these in the UK ?
ReplyDeleteSorry, I won't know. I'm not staying in the UK. Maybe you try to search on the internet .
ReplyDelete